Finally, Oasis Capture ‘Glory’ in America

A single live show on American soil is all it took for the hyperbole surrounding the reunion of a certain Britpop outfit to reach its apex. “Oasis finally conquer America,” screamed one headline following the gig last Thursday at Chicago’s Soldier Field. “Oasis rewrite history,” went another. Even CNN got involved with their quasi-thinkpiece, “Oasis never really cared about America. Is America ready to care about them?”

Ok, let’s everyone slow their roll with it.

Like any other act that explodes in popularity in the United Kingdom, Oasis inevitably sought to break the States. They had the songs, the sales, the brashness, and a penchant for being outspoken and downright dismissive toward peers and legends. Still, it never happened. Like a dozen artists before them, Brothers Gallagher – Liam and Noel – failed, despite being heralded almost from the outset as English icons. Part of it was their own undoing, which went far beyond the curiosity of siblings in a band who didn’t particularly like one another.

From the notorious 1994 crystal meth-fueled gig in Los Angeles to Liam eschewing the beginning of a 1996 American leg to go house-hunting in England for a few days, Oasis never quite found their tour footing here, which is a major downside of being authentically petulant rock stars. The band stalled at filling theater-sized venues and was a favorite sub-headliner for radio station festivals like jingle balls, but that’s about it as far as the mainstream music fan was concerned. Eventually, the group tried to save face and said it didn’t matter if the States never went mad for them.

Now, it’s over a decade and a half plus since the Gallagher’s oft-simmering, oft-boiling over squabbling went full powder keg before taking the stage at a festival in France…

Read the rest of this piece over at Vanyaland to find out what it was like on the streets of Chicago, where Oasis played their first American gig since 2008, in the days leading up to the show, a report from an Oasis tribute band, SuperSonic, and how the actual gig went down in Chi-Town. Also, here’s a thank-you video the group put out after the concert.